Presidential jet raffle ‘symbolic’

Mexicans will no longer have to worry about where to park a Boeing Dreamliner when the government raffles off the luxurious presidential jet: the air force will keep it.

In fact, nobody will win the actual US$130 million (NZ$203m) Boeing 787 in the lottery-style raffle to be held in coming months.

Among the many desperate attempts to get rid of the expensive plane, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had toyed with the idea of actually awarding it to the winner, along with a year’s paid maintenance and parking.

But he was worried that this would cause problems for the winner, both because of the greed it could unleash among friends, relatives and acquaintances, and because the idea was widely lampooned on social media, with people posting pictures of shacks or taco stands with the jet parked outside.

So the president announced yesterday that the raffle will actually be symbolic, awarding total prize money of US$100 million (NZ$156m), which lottery tickets state is ‘‘equivalent to the value of the presidential jet’’. One hundred winners will receive equal shares.

‘‘We did not want to award a prize that would be a problem,’’ Lopez Obrador said. Instead, he said, a cash prize winner would be free to use some of their winnings to rent the plane for a few trips, at the current rate of about US$13,500 (NZ$21,000) per hour.

The plane failed to find a buyer after a year on sale at a United States airstrip, where it racked up about US$1.5m in maintenance costs.

The government hopes to sell six million tickets at about US$25 (NZ$39) apiece, raising US$150 million (NZ$234m). The remaining money will pay to keep the plane in flying condition while Lopez Obrador tries to sell or rent it. Any net proceeds will be used to buy medical equipment.

Lopez Obrador flies tourist class on commercial flights and views the jet, bought for more than US$200m by his predecessor, as wasteful.

The jet is expensive to run and is configured to carry only 80 people, with a full presidential suite with a bedroom and private bath. Experts say it would be too expensive to reconfigure back into a commercial airliner that normally carries as many as 300 passengers.

Previously, Lopez Obrador had suggested bartering the plane in exchange for US medical equipment, or selling it to a group of businessmen. He has also offered to rent it out by the hour, to help pay off the outstanding loans on the plane.

AP Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says a raffle of the presidential Boeing Dreamliner will award total prize money equivalent to the plane’s value, rather than the winner receiving the plane itself.